Is Sarah Palin Really a Citizen?

Sarah Palin fans may be forced to ask the hard question this week. Is their favorite Mama Grizzly even legally able to run for president?

Palin got the shocking news from genealogists this week that she and President Barack Obama are related. Both are linked back through their mothers to John Smith, a pastor and early settler in 17th-century Massachusetts.

Time to get out your birth certificate, Mrs. Palin. And start regretting all that time you spent indulging the birthers.

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Palin has said several times that questions about President Obama's birth certificate are fair game -- once using conspiracy theories about her youngest son, Trig, as reason enough that questions should be cleared up.

But like the rest of the birther movement, the former Alaska governor conveniently ignored Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, Obama's mother and a native Kansan. As the child of an American citizen, he could as easily have been born in Kenya or Timbuktu as Hawaii (where he was really born -- really folks, really) and still legally been a citizen and hence a candidate for the presidency.

But it seems Soetoro is Obama's link back to John Smith according to the research by Ancestry.com. And Palin can trace her ancestry back to Smith -- and her 10th cousinship to Obama -- through her own mom, Sarah Heath.

So let's enter the twisted mind of the birthers.

If Barack Obama's mom's citizenship doesn't make him a citizen of the country, then Sarah Palin's mom can't either, right?

Heck, let's throw in fellow birther Rush Limbaugh. He's a long-distance cousin of the president too. Can we vote him off the island? His real 'merican-ness might be in question.

If it all sounds ludicrous, you haven't quaffed enough Orly Taitz-Aid. So let's keep going.

Palin has pounced on the illegal immigration issue, calling for the borders to be secured and those naughty aliens to be picked up and carried kicking and screaming straight to Mexico.

With her citizenship now in question, are the police ready to round her up? They can take her to Russia -- Todd and the kids could still check in with mom from their house.

Or she could use this ancestry revelation to make the conspiracy theorists focus on real issues. What do you think she'll do?